design of monster mill or barley crusher

ok, im looking at the monster mill and barley crusher, im considering making my own since i have access to lathe and mills, plus I have a resinable amount of machining experience (mechanical engineer). I would like to make my own, for fun(i love playing with those big toys) and to save some money.

But anyways, i was wondering how the adjustment works. are the knobs on the end to turn it and its almost like a cam profile? to when you turn it the space adjusts?

I think im going to put some time into a 3d model this week and see what i come up with, but this is really the only thing holding me back, and if anyone else has some ideas for adjustment let me know.

The adjustment mechanism on these mills is typically done with eccentric bronze oil impregnated bushings which support the the axle shafts of one roller. The adjustment is made by rotating these bushings which alters the gap between the two rollers. The bushings are held in place by a set screw of some kind and often these are thumb screws. There are a couple of things that I don't like about this configuration. One is that you must stop the mill in order to make adjustments. The other is that you must check the gap at each end of the rollers with a feeler gauge to be sure that the gap is of uniform width across the length of the rollers. This is time consuming and inconvenient IMO. It would be much better to be able to make adjustments while the mill is in operation and with a single knob or lever of some kind. I have a single roller mill which works this way, but it is no longer being manufactured. The single roller smashes the grain against a curved plate. The plate is hinged at the top and a thumb screw pushing against the plate is used for adjustments. No need to stop the mill or measure the gap. The adjustments are made based on visually inspecting the grist. It's a very simple design and works exceptionally well.

ok, that makes sense now, i was thinking way to much into it

this is a picture of my barley mill that i will be making, the adjustment knob works so that you dont have to adjust both sides of it, and there is a locking knob on the back side that is in a grove so you can only go form small to big and back and not over turn. from there ill measure the gap and put sizings on the know to line up with a hash mark.

i stole some ideas from the monster mill and barley crusher, but created a solution to have a one knob adjustment with a lock knob.

lastly it has a gap that is from .010" to .100", more than enough space, since i measured some grain and on the "thin" side it is at most the largest of .110", with .010" any small would just create flower and have the MLT become stuck.

rustbucket said:

this is a picture of my barley mill that i will be making, the adjustment knob works so that you dont have to adjust both sides of it, and there is a locking knob on the back side that is in a grove so you can only go form small to big and back and not over turn. from there ill measure the gap and put sizings on the know to line up with a hash mark.

i stole some ideas from the monster mill and barley crusher, but created a solution to have a one knob adjustment with a lock knob.

lastly it has a gap that is from .010" to .100", more than enough space, since i measured some grain and on the "thin" side it is at most the largest of .110", with .010" any small would just create flower and have the MLT become stuck.

Click to expand...

Nice, wish my Barley Crusher was easily adjustable like your design. Come up with a simple retrofit for us BC users and we will all be happy!

i would assume that my design (saying it works) im building it in the next couple weeks, would almost fit the BC with minor changes.

Plus for me building it is about 1/2 the cost of buying one. Not including labor because my time is pretty worthless. Only thing keeping me occupied is finishing up my Thesis, and home brewing.

i like the way rust bucket rolls... lol

-bump-

I was wondering where I might be able to find or what to look for to buy the actual rollers.

Did you manf this?

I'm in the same boat, engineer so I can model a mill pretty easily and turn the parts out in an afternoon.

I was thinking of making one myself, only thing I'm leery of is the knurling. We have the tooling but the machinists aren't sure of the quality they will produce.

Rustbucket, did you ever finish this mill? If so, do you have some drawings or the like which I could get, as I'm going to build my own mill. I already have the rollers and have access to a machine shop.

TC

What is a adjustment mechanism? How does the single knob work, an eccentric shaft?